Location: Chatham County, GA Map
Constructed: 1829
Area: 5,623 acres (23 km2)
Fort Pulaski is a United States Coast Defense Fort. It is
preserved as a national monument as part of Fort Pulaski
National Monument. The fort is located in Chatham County on
Cockspur Island in the estuary of the Savannah River, which
forms the border between the states of Georgia and South
Carolina at this point.
It was named after Polish-born
officer Kazimierz PuĊaski, who fought under George Washington in
the American Revolutionary War. The fort has been designated a
memorial site since 1924 and is managed by the National Park
Service. It was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places on October 15, 1966.
In the course of the necessary defensive measures with regard to the
effects of the British-American War of 1812, the American government
under President James Madison decided to protect the country's most
important ports and stretches of coast against enemy attacks with
permanent fortifications. It was therefore decided to build a fort at
the mouth of the Savannah River, which should seal off the river mouth
and the port of Savannah to the west.
Construction began in 1829,
initially under the direction of Major-General (Major General) Babcock,
who later employed Second Lieutenant (Lieutenant) Robert E. Lee, a
graduate of the United States Military Academy, as supervisor. Because
of the swampy ground, the fort was built on stilts. The oak trunks used
for this are up to 23 meters long. 25 million bricks were needed to
build the facility. After 18 years of construction, the fort was
completed in 1847 and cost a million dollars, which was a very large sum
for the time. In 1833, during the construction phase, it was decided to
name the fort Fort Pulaski.
The main work had a pentagonal plan
with the apex facing east (downriver). The fort is surrounded by a moat
that is 16 meters wide and about 2.5 meters deep. The ramparts reach a
height of about ten meters with a total length of 526 meters. It was
considered storm-free.
After completion, the fort was not occupied by troops, but was only
under the care of two guards or caretakers (caretakers) until South
Carolina triggered secession in 1860.
After further development
began to emerge, then-Governor of Georgia Joseph E. Brown claimed the
fort for his state. Without being authorized, he dispatched a 110-strong
Georgia National Guard detachment from Savannah on a steamer. This
detachment held the fort for the state of Georgia until after Georgia's
secession from the Union in February 1861, the National Guard was
replaced by regular Confederate Army troops.
In December 1861,
the Confederate Army leadership decided to give up Tybee Island, south
of Cockspur Island, because of its isolated location and poor supply.
This gave the US troops under General Quincy A. Gillmore the opportunity
to establish themselves below Fort Pulaski without much trouble.
Confederate forces immediately began laying siege batteries along the
shore of Tybee Island.
Fort Pulaski was prepared for a possible infantry attack. However,
the fort was never subjected to a direct attack by land. With 36 guns,
including the new James rifled guns, Union troops began a sustained
bombardment of Fort Pulaski. The new rifled guns fired rifled
projectiles that could be fired further than the heavier smoothbore
cannonballs. Within 30 hours, the new guns had breached one of the
fort's 4 corner walls. Shells then passed alarmingly close to the fort's
large powder magazine. Colonel Charles Olmstead reluctantly surrendered
the fort.
Within 6 weeks of the surrender, Union forces had
repaired the fort and all shipping in and out of Savannah ceased. The
loss of Savannah as a useful Confederate port was a serious handicap to
the South's war effort. With the fort safely in Union control, Gen.
David Hunter, who was the fort's commanding officer, issued Gen. Order
Number Eleven, which stated that all slaves in Florida, Georgia, and
South Carolina were now free. President Abraham Lincoln quickly withdrew
the order, but in 1863 issued his own Emancipation Proclamation. By
then, Fort Pulaski had become the terminus of the Underground Slave
Railroad, with slaves from all over the area being freed once they
reached Cockspur Island.
Initially the Union garrison numbered
600 men, but as the war dragged on and it became apparent that the
Confederate Army was unable to recapture the fort, it was later reduced
to about 250. Late in the war, the fort was converted into a prison for
a group of prisoners the Confederate officer, known as the Immortal 600.
13 of these died at the fort due to deliberate mistreatment. After the
war ended, the fort continued to serve as a military and political
prison for a short time. It came to accommodate the Southern states'
secretary of state, finance minister, war minister, deputy war minister,
in addition to 3 state governors, a senator and the man who had been in
command of the fort after it had been taken over by the South.
First, high-ranking members of the Confederate government were
arrested, such as the secretary of state, the secretary of treasury, the
secretary of war and his deputy, three state governors, a senator and
the first southern commander of the fort.
Between 1869 and 1872
construction work was carried out and the throat was protected by
earthwork in the shape of a flesh. Powder magazines and some gun
placements for heavy artillery were set up on the Flesche. The moat was
extended and led around the Flesche, but it is only about ten meters
wide here.
At the beginning of the 20th century the building
began to show severe signs of deterioration. To counteract this, the US
War Department declared the facility a national monument on October 15,
1924, based on a proclamation by President Calvin Coolidge. On August
10, 1933, responsibility passed to the National Park Service, which
immediately began securing work with members of the Civilian
Conservation Corps.
At the beginning of World War II, the fort
was closed to the public and used by the US Navy as a base. After the
end of the war, the fort was returned to the National Parks
Administration and was listed on the National Register of Historic
Places on October 15, 1966. Fort Pulaski is open to the public.